New SCEA book by Cade and Roberts.

Well I received my copy of the book yesterday, and last night I started on in, and got through to chapter 3. The book seems to take a high level approach. I found chapter 3 on EJB to be very rudimentary. Going as far as The interfaces, and EJB Lifecycle, and Transaction levels. It is a good overview of these areas. However, if you have any experience with EJB's already, you already know this information. My question is, is part I at that level, or does it go deeper into EJB's? I will continue to let you guys know what I have gotten from the book as I go along. It is really easy to read, which means it is written well, and clear to the point. Mark

Since I already cleared part I (and am working on part II), I was wondering if it's worth getting the book just for part II. My local bookstore doesn't have it in stock yet. Mark: since you have this book, can you tell me if it covers part II well enough to be worth getting it? Thanks, Howie

Part 2 coverage is less than 10 pages. It has a case study and solutions (with minimal explanations). I think it is still useful as it shows the level of detail that Sun expects (Mark Cade is the author of the SCEA exam!).

Well I finished reading up to the Case Study. I will wait to read that when I am up to part II. As far as the reading for Part I. I found it to be very broad and surface level. Which seems like how deep the test goes into. I learned a lot about Security that I hadn't understood before. The parts on the Design Patterns are enough to give you the basic understanding of each Pattern. It put all the UML of each Pattern, which is important. Protocols and Internationaization are briefly covered, but I don't really think that there needs to be any more put into it. In Chapter 2 they had UML. It went over this also at a high level. It expalins all the lines boxes, diagrams, et al. This part reaches the surface, but to get a full grasp of the UML, you need to do some of it yourself. But it is really basic and logical anyway. The book is aptly titled Study Guide, because that is what it is, a guide. It shows you the basic knowledge you need for the exam, but it also does not attempt to be the one tell all be all book, and should be bought realizing that. Don't expect to read the book and pass the test right away, some experience or practical knowledge is very important to really be able to take this knowledge and apply to scenarios. Well that's my 2 cents. I would like to thank Mark Cade and Simon Roberts for writing this book, it will help me tremendously in taking all parts of the exam. Mark

I had the chance recently to take a look into this book. As I succeeded SCEA...I would say it is not worth it to buy it...keep your money ! To succeed Part I, the John's note or Simon lee web site on Javaranch are enough ! Also, the book is only interesting on how Sun expects to see your UML diagram. People always asks how UML must be detailed...do we need to show Home/remote in the class diagram... So, my free charge advice is to go to a BookStore and just have a look to their case study ;-) Marc Cade has just made a book from its FastPath document ! herve

Hello, I just recieved the book (Had to get it shipped from the US to the UK, it's not out till May over here!) Having looked through the book it seems like I have bought "peace of mind". I know I could get all the notes online from varoius resources and wouldn't need to buy a single book. However this book seems to be saying "we will be covering this, in this much detail". So hopefully when I've finished reading this book I won't get any suprises in the exam! I'm not saying this is the only book you need for the exam (I already own all the usual EJB books, GOF etc) but it tells you the level of detail you should know for each area. I want to know how much to study in each area and this guide book gives me that. Just another thought. Ian

I find this amusing, because when I asked a few days ago, the general reaction was "don't waste your money", and now it's far more muted... so which is it? Is this a "when they fix the errors, it'll be a good resource" or "use the free sites online" kind of thing?

Theodore Jonathan Casser
SCJP/SCSNI/SCBCD/SCWCD/SCDJWS/SCMAD/SCEA/MCTS/MCPD... and so many more letters than you can shake a stick at!